Step 1: Materials

Step 2: Making the petals

To form the petals, start by cutting off a piece of wire that is about a foot long and a piece of red duct tape about 4 inches long. Stick the wire to the duct tape so that they overlap about 1/3 of the length of the duct tape. Then fold the duct tape over the end of the wire and stick the two sides together. This will form the basic structure of the petal. Cut the petal to shape by trimming the sides and rounding off the end. If you don’t want the white adhesive to show, use the marker to color in the cut edges. Repeat this process for a total of ten petals. You will want to make a variety of sizes. In a real rose, the inner petals are smaller than the outer petals. Copying that structure helps you to get the shape right.

Step 3: Shaping the petals

Start forming the rose by taking the smallest petal and loosely roll it into a tube. Then with each additional petal there are few extra things that you need to do to shape them. Each petal should be offset from the previous one in a spiral. To make the petals gently curl around the center, pinch the tape as you wrap it. This makes the bottom of the petal a little narrower than the middle making it a little more rounded. The rest of the shaping is done by bending the wire. Fold out the tip and press it towards the stem. This causes the middle to bulge and gives it, its vertical curve.

I made these for my wife on Valentine's Day............Earned me some major points!!!! Who says art can't be functional???? Mine didn't turn out quite as nice as in the video though. Still, Gotta give it 5 out of 5 if I can figure it out!!

I made these today with my teenage students in my art class and they came out cool. We found that we don't need to use wire for every single petal - the tape is OK without the wire. We struggled to get the outer petals to stretch out once the tape was curled around the main bud section - the petals could be peeled back but not wide and curvy like yours.

One things that I found that helps when making wider flowers is changing the angles that you wrap the tape. If you angle the tape so that it goes up a little instead of wrapping straight around, it pushes the petals out more. You can also get some curve in the petals by simply creasing the tape.

Thanks - one of the best of these that I have seen. The addition of the wire and coloring the edges makes a big difference.

FWIW, I did not have easy access to floral wire, so I used a disposable chopstick as the stem, and had some thin copper wire that I cut into ~1.5" lengths to get a similar effect. There is plenty of copper wire at the home stores where you buy duct tape.

You can find it at most hardware stores and big box stores. Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, etc. You can find it all over the place. And you can order it online if you want something specific. http://duckbrand.com/Products/duck-tape.aspx